You’ve spent your life working to better the lives of migrants!

My parents came as immigrants from México, and I was born and raised in San Diego, an entry city for migrants from Latin America and beyond. During college I began organizing against anti-immigrant initiatives in San Diego. I’ve been directly involved ever since in supporting migrants. Their perilous journey doesn’t end once they’ve made it onto US soil.

The problems these migrants face go way beyond getting documented. Back in 1996, for example, Congress and President Clinton put in place a welfare “reform” that ended up costing many elderly immigrants the benefits they depended on. The majority of these seniors did have permanent residency status, but didn’t meet the new work history threshold, either because they had worked in “informal” jobs or didn’t have enough years of registered work.

Migrants confront daily obstacles because policymakers stack policies against them. So advocating for immigrant-friendly legislation must be part of our methodology.

You’ve been working with asylum seekers at the border. What does “asylum” mean?

Asylum used to be defined as taking in those from another country fleeing harm. During WWII, a boatload of Jewish people arrived on US shores, but US officials sent them back to Germany —  and almost certain death.

This shameful incident often gets cited today as a reason why the United States and other countries should accept asylum seekers. But today’s asylum policies all too often lack compassion. They set an unconscionably high benchmark. Refugees must prove they are fleeing extreme harm.

So what happens? US authorities have denied asylum to Mexicans threatened by criminal gangs in Michoacan. They say these asylum-seekers can just move to somewhere else in México. But the criminal networks operate well beyond Michoacan.

Refugee Jews aboard the M.S. St. Louis denied entry into the United States in 1939./Keystone-France, Gemma-Keystine, Getty Images

Most Mexicans who try to enter into the United States do not cross with the intention of turning themselves in and seeking asylum — because US officials so rarely approve asylum claims for Mexican nationals. The direct result: Migrants are making extremely dangerous journeys across mountains and deserts.

Those migrants who do seek asylum are now facing unfair new process hurdles. They must use a special Customs and Border Protection app on their cell phones to make an asylum appointment at a port of entry. But not everyone has or knows how to use this technology, and those with 5G technology can beat out the 4G people in getting the available slots.

Asylum-seekers trying to use the Customs app also find that people with dark skins have problems uploading photos of themselves, as the app requires.

Photo: Herika Martinez/AFP, Getty Images

The Trump-era Title 42 border policy just ended, and President Biden, expecting a big surge of migrants into the US, sent 1,500 troops to ensure order. What did you actually see on the ground?

Trump’s Title 42 used the Covid pandemic as a pretext to deny Black and Brown migrants asylum by empowering Border Patrol agents to expel migrants without honoring their due process rights. This made an extremely difficult entry process for migrants even worse.

We also need to remember that denying entry into the US puts migrants in harm’s way by forcing them to wait in dangerous areas on the Mexican side of the border. Title 42 especially endangered Black people. We saw a documented uptick in kidnappings, rape, and torture after Title 42 took effect.

Just before the anticipated end of Title 42, we heard heated rhetoric in the media about the massive multitudes that would soon be “surging” into the United States. Words like “surge” condition the US public to think that militarization offers the only viable alternative. But Title 42 ended with no surge, no extraordinary increase in migration.

The Border Patrol, before that end of Title 42, seemed to be doing its best to purposefully manufacture a false “surge” event. In the weeks before Title 42’s expiration, they stopped processing asylum-seekers who had made it past San Diego’s primary border wall. They kept these asylum-seekers between the 30-foot-high primary wall and a 30-foot secondary wall for extended periods of time, as many as seven days. Those spaces between the two walls essentially became an open-air pre-processing detention space.

Migrants needed to keep their phones charged to connect with family members. We tried to help migrants with charging their phones. Border Patrol agents responded by threatening us: “If you keep charging their phones,” they said, “we won’t let you feed them.” 

We charged their phones anyway because we recognized how important a lifeline those phones had become.

Your American Field Services Committee tries to work with the Border Patrol to improve the treatment of migrants, right?

Yes, we have had regular meetings with various agencies in the immigration apparatus. But our relationship with the Border Patrol has varied by administration and with who leads the agency. Under George W. Bush, the War on Terror hardened the US stance. Under Obama, we met quarterly and developed a national standard for the treatment of detainees. With Trump, we had no communication. Under Biden, we have dialogue, but the conversation has been shallow and hasn’t resulted in better practices. 

AFSC doesn’t just assist and advocate. You facilitate organizing in migrant communities. How important do you see this part of your program?

All people have agency. Organizing remains the key. We inform people about their rights and provide them tools to organize themselves. Migrants can accomplish a lot at the local level and influence what happens regionally and nationally. Cities can become allies in protecting and defending human rights, but this must occur through the organizing that gives directly impacted communities a sustained ownership of the process. 

What kind of reforms do you want to see?

Immigration reform must emphasize humane treatment. Over the past several decades, the emphasis has been on enforcement through deterrence, and that has only increased border-related deaths. An alternative? The Biden administration must improve processing, increase service staff, and train more hearing officers to address the backlog of cases. Another good use of federal funds would be supporting states and municipalities that want to integrate migrants into their communities.

Above all, we need to practice compassion and respect. Migrants face untold harm from state and non-state actors. But they also have the capacity to shape policies and narratives to reflect the realities they face. We have a responsibility to create public spaces that can help migrating people speak on their own behalf — so they can offer the ideas that best meet their needs.